I have no doubt whatsoever that the spread of Ramanama and pure living are the best and
cheapest preventives of disease. The tragedy is that doctors, hakims and
vaidyas do not make use of Ramanama as the sovereign of cures. There is no
place given to it in current ayurvedic literature, except it be in the
shape of a charm which will drive people further into the well of superstition.
Ramanama has, in fact, no connection with superstition. It is Nature's supreme
law. Whoever observes it, is free from disease and vice versa. The same law
which keeps one free from disease, applies also to its cure. An apt question is
as to why a man who recites Ramanama regularly and leads a pure life should ever
fall ill. Man is by nature imperfect. A thoughtful man strives after perfection,
but never attains it. He stumbles on the way, however, unwittingly. The whole of
God's law is embodied in a pure life. The first thing is to realize one's
limitations. It should be obvious that the moment one transgresses those limits,
one falls ill. Thus, a balanced diet eaten in accordance with needs gives one
freedom from disease. How is one to know what is the proper diet for one? Many
such enigmas can be imagined. The purport of it all is that everyone should be
his own doctor and find out his limitations. The man who does so will surely
live up to 125.
Doctor friends claim that they do nothing more than investigating the laws and act
accordingly and that, therefore, they are the best Nature Cure men. Everything
can be explained away in this manner. All I want to say is that anything more
than Ramanama is really contrary to true Nature Cure. The more one recedes from
this central principle, the farther away one goes from Nature Cure. Following
this line of thought, I limit Nature Cure to the use of the five elements. But a
vaidya who goes beyond this and uses such herbs, as grow or can be grown in
his neighbourhood, purely for service of the sick and not for money, may claim
to be a Nature Cure man. But where are such vaidyas to be found? Today
most of them are engaged in making money. They do no research work and it is
because of their greed and mental laziness that the science of ayurveda
is at a low ebb.